[1]Tenn. missions offering gets $1.75M endowment
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) — The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board has received an anonymous gift of $1,575,000 to endow the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions.
The endowment will generate an estimated $50,000 or more for GOTM outreach each year, mission board members were informed during their April 25 meeting.
Randy C. Davis, the board’s president and executive director, said the endowment gift to the state missions offering is “a strong indication that Tennessee Baptists are hearing clearly that any way you slice it Tennessee is a missions field [and] are willing to do whatever it takes to reach the spiritually lost in our own home state with the Gospel of Christ.”
Through the GOTM endowment fund, Davis said others can “contribute directly to the fund as the Lord leads. This ensures that generations to come will hear the Gospel and that people will be leaving a legacy of supporting compassion ministries, church planting and revitalization, children’s camps, collegiate ministry, leader development and so much more.”
Davis, in a May 3 column in the Baptist and Reflector state newsjournal, noted that the GOTM has grown more than 15 percent in the past three years.
[2]“A tremendous ‘Thank you’ goes out to this generous Tennessee Baptist” who endowed the fund, Davis wrote, adding, “A huge thanks also goes to every Tennessee Baptist who has generously given through GOTM, even if it is ‘a widow’s mite.’ Generosity is not measured by dollar amounts; it is measured by an attitude of the heart.”
“Here is the beauty of working together,” Davis wrote. “Not everybody can give million-dollar gifts — few people can — but we can all give according to the Lord’s leading, regardless of amount.”
The Tennessee convention’s Church Support Center opened at its new location in Franklin, south of Nashville, on May 23. The convention rented office space for three years after selling its former 88,000-square-foot building, which opened in Brentwood in 1969. The new 32,533-square-foot debt-free facility is on a 2.3-acre site in a mixed-use development adjacent to Interstate 65.
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SBTS ‘Giving Days’ raise $300K for student tuition
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — Social media testimonials and community service sparked the first-ever “Giving Days” at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, raising more than $300,000 to offset student tuition.
The four-day initiative gave students, alumni, donors and faculty opportunities to share their seminary experiences, provide financial support and serve in Louisville-area communities.
Students, faculty and alumni shared their stories through social media for Tell Day on April 20. Several notable figures in Southern Baptist life recorded testimonies during Tell Day, including Mark Dever, Kevin Ezell, Eric Geiger and Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr.
“I am thankful that there is an institution that is so committed to God’s Word and its effect on us and in God’s church,” said Dever, pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. “There are few places in the world that could have the resources together that have been assembled at Southern.”
During Give Day on April 21, donors began contributing financially to the seminary. With more than $75,000 pledged in advance as matching donations, the institutional advancement office reported after the Giving Days that more than $300,000 had been raised through the campaign.
On Saturday, April 22, more than 400 volunteers from the SBTS community helped with service projects at several locations such as the Louisville Rescue Mission.
During Preach the Word on Sunday, 19 SBTS students filled pulpits at churches in the Kentucky Baptist Convention, while other students shared testimonies in churches in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee thanking them for their support of Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program missions and ministries.
Craig Parker, now serving as the seminary’s senior vice president of institutional administration, noted, “The entire Southern family quickly grasped the spirit of the event, and each group participated enthusiastically. Significant victories were achieved on each of the four days of Giving Days.”
More information about Giving Days is available at http://www.sbts.edu/givingdays.
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Anderson Univ. acquires Preaching, Youthworker magazines
ANDERSON, S.C. (BP) — Anderson University has acquired Preaching and Youthworker quarterly magazines from previous owner Salem Media Group.
In addition to the two long-established magazines, the South Carolina university also will create new websites related to the publications. Salem Media Group will continue to operate the web domains previously linked to Preaching and Youthworker but with no connection to the print publications.
Anderson President Evans Whitaker said the university is “delighted to have this opportunity to extend [its] service to the church through providing these vital resources for pastors, youth ministers and church leaders.”
Michael Duduit, founder and editor of Preaching since 1985, will continue his role as executive editor of that publication. Duduit has served as dean of Anderson’s College of Christian Studies and Clamp Divinity School since 2008. He also directs the National Conference on Preaching, an annual event jointly sponsored by the Clamp Divinity School and Preaching magazine.
Clayton King, president of Clayton King Ministries and current interim senior pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, will become the new executive editor of Youthworker. King has extensive experience as a youth evangelist and conference speaker, and his Crossroads Summer Camps draw more than 5,000 young people each summer to Anderson’s campus, which also houses King’s ministry organization.
The Fall issue of each publication will be the first published by the university.